No abstract

Objective: Cyberbullying is a new type of bullying activity due to the advancement of digital technology as compared to traditional bullying. This study aims to examine the influence of attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control on cyberbullying behavioural intention on social media among adolescents and the mediating effect of empathy between these variables. The questionnaire survey was conducted mainly in West Peninsular Malaysia (Selangor, Penang, Ipoh and Johor Bahru) and a total of 219 respondents among adolescents were successfully collected. The data collected are being analysed through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with the use of the Partial Least Square approach (PLS). The results of the relationship between three independent variables on the mediating variable and cyberbullying behavioural intention as the dependent variable for this study. Attitude and perceived behavioural control have a significant relationship on cyberbullying behavioural intention (p < 0.05) and therefore H1 and H3 were accepted. In addition, attitude and perceived behavioural control (p < 0.05) have a significant relationship on empathy towards cyberbullying behavioural intention (p < 0.05), hence H4a and H4c were accepted. However, an insignificant result (p > 0.05) was identified for the subjective norm on cyberbullying behavioural intention and therefore, H2 is rejected. Furthermore, the results also show that subjective norm and empathy towards cyberbullying behavioural intention are insignificant (p > 0.05) and therefore H4b is rejected. Overall, all hypotheses are accepted except for H2 and H4b are rejected in this study. Furthermore, for future studies, it is recommended to include other components of empathy such as cognitive and affective, other personality traits of self-esteem and loneliness as the mediating effect that would give better insight towards cyberbullying behavioural intention in Malaysia during the pandemic situation.